This blog is dedicated to treating everyone - clients, prospects, friends, and family - as valuable partners. We should show them our gratitude through all our actions, including our marketing.

February 7, 2016

The Truth

"If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember
anything.” (Mark Twain)

I heard the same advice from my father when I was young. His
words were, “If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember who you
told what.”

In both cases these mentoring words of advice apply to both
our business lives as well as our personal ones. We can employ this type of
advice very well in our marketing and in our business practices. Keep it
simple; be truthful. Then we always will know that what we have said to each individual
is what we have said to everyone and is true.

We have all heard the claims of various other people in
their marketing. Today a presentation of theirs claims one set of
accomplishments. Tomorrow we may hear a slightly different version. Which is
accurate? Maybe it is the version that we hear next week or next year.

Sometimes the people making the statements don’t realize
that they are reinventing the truth from time to time. Sometimes they know
exactly what they are doing and saying. Perhaps a small exaggeration is
intentional; sometimes it may be an accidental slip of the tongue. Often it is
not only intentional; it is designed for effect to press a point or an
advantage in a moment of a presentation.

So what does this practice get us in our marketing? Often we
are marketing to people who we know quite well, and they know us as completely.
Sometimes we make presentations to the same person or groups who have heard us
previously. Do we really believe that our prospects or audience are dumb or
easily misled? Do we really believe that people may not remember what we told
them previously?

It is imperative that we make our marketing truthful each
and every time we provide presentations to everyone. Our prospects, and our
customers, will remember the differences in our claims from one presentation to
another. Whether it is a prospect or a customer, failing to tell the truth at
all times can be devastating to our marketing results.

What happens when we change something in our offerings? If we
change the products or services that we offer, we must make the changes clear
and distinct to our prospects. We must also make the same effort to explain the
differences to our current customers as well as customers that we have not
retained. Everyone must be informed, and the changes must be clarified as to
the detail and rational of the changes.

Honesty and
truthfulness will always bring better results than deceit of any level.
Confusion, apathy, and anger follow the discovery that anyone has not been truthful
to their prospects and customers. No one wants to be deceived; it makes people
believe that they have been used and not in a good manner.

Truthfulness in our marketing is a must, and anything
less than total honesty must never be a part of our marketing. Gratitude Marketing has no room for dishonesty, no matter the reason.
Truthfulness will always be rewarded by karma, and our prospects and customers
will always tell others that they trust us and trust our claims and intentions.
Please
leave me your comments here, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com,or call me at 360-314-8691.